Travelodge reveals Leeds guests' weirdest requests

As a receptionist at a budget hotel, you'd be pretty surprised if a guest asked you to help make them a costume for the Leeds Carnival.

But that’s exactly what happened to one member of staff at a Travelodge in the city - and the chain has now revealed many more of its customers’ strangest requests from the past year.

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Leeds’s five Travelodge sites - Central, Vicar Lane, Colton, Morley and Airport - have witnessed a number of bizarre incidents involving paying guests.

Staff were confronted by a Carnival-goer asking if they could help make a sequinned big bird outfit for the August Bank Holiday event in Chapeltown.

Another confused customer asked for workers to arrange a hot air balloon ride to Leeds Castle for his wife’s birthday - seemingly unaware that the historic attraction is actually located in Kent.

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A ghost-hunting tourist wanted staff to take them on a personal tour to meet the Blue Lady, who reputedly haunts Temple Newsam House in east Leeds.

An intrepid traveller asked if he needed ID to visit the Golden Triangle - although it wasn’t clear if they were referring to the property hotspot between north Leeds, Harrogate and York or the opium-producing region of south-east Asia.

A business guest wanted last-minute help to translate their Powerpoint presentation into Mandarin for their company’s Chinese office, and another thought hotel staff would happily act as their chauffeur for the day.

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A puppet-loving punter asked receptionists to arrange a meeting with his ‘childhood hero’ - Sooty the bear - and another wanted staff to track down a Cluedo champion for a board game competition in their room.

And one diva asked for a mountain of Jelly Tots to be available in their accommodation on arrival.

A demanding request from a man staying in Leeds Central also made Travelodge’s national top 20 in the fun survey. The busy husband asked staff to both purchase and wrap a birthday present for his wife before delivering it to her room before she woke up.

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Harrogate’s Travelodge site also appears in the top 20 after a customer asked if their pampered Pomimo pedigree dog, named Cleopatra, could be fed Kobe beef.

Shakila Ahmed from Travelodge said:

“With over 18 million customers staying annually across our 523 UK Travelodge hotels, our hotel teams receive thousands of unusual requests from business and leisure travellers. Where possible, the hotel teams go above and beyond to help customers however, there are some requests that they cannot help with; such as finding a nicorn to help one romantic with his wedding proposal, ensuring there is a blue sky on the day of an important strategy meeting for an executive and moving a Travelodge room to the roof of the hotel so that the customer could sleep under the stars!”